Maybe it's just me, but when I get into a big anime kick or watch a movie with a lot of foreign languages or accents, my little head-voice starts to talk just like that too... Like, I'll be using little Japanese phrases, or talking in a British or Spanish accent. I'm not a super-big language buff or anything, but I apparently have a knack for picking up accents and pronunciation habits from other languages. Does this kinda thing happen to anyone else? Just curious :)

it sure does...^^

This is exactly what happens to me. It's part of why I became a linguistics major.

Sometimes.

I can seemlessly switch between thinking in Serbocroatian and thinking in English without even noticing, so yeah, all the time. There are occasuons where different languages also get entangled, especially when I watch documentaries or TV series. Especially when trying my hardest to read place names or person names as accurately as possible.

last edited at Aug 22, 2020 3:57AM

Usually only if I'm reading a book or VERY text heavy manga in Japanese. Then it gets in my head. I haven't done that type of reading much lately.

I'm not really there yet, but when I left a Spanish-speaking country, it was a shift to be using English with the attendants on the (American) airline. Likewise leaving Japan after a few months for Australia. I do have arbitrary moments of using 'hai', 'da', or 'si' instead of yes. I particularly like 'nyet' for no, perhaps because it sounds like "not yet" too.

last edited at Sep 13, 2020 6:10PM

...isn't this what happens to pretty much everyone once they hit certain level of fluency? It really streamlines things when you no longer need to mentally translate to/from your native and can just switch gears on the fly.

Can also cause moments of embrassment when you're, say, reading something and don't remember to switch modes when someone speaks to you >_>

Depends on what language I'm using. When Speaking/reading my native Swedish, I think in that.
I then switch everything over when using English.
I think that is the most robust sign that you are fluent in a language, when you can naturally switch without effort.

Being trilingual, I regularly find myself randomly thinking in one of my three languages, depending on which one I actually spoke last and which audience I imagine telling whatever I am currently thinking to.

Only when I'm thinking about how to say something in my L2

What about computer-based languages?

Not sure if this counts, but I recently stumbled across some pictures of a model named Mimi Desuka, which I immediately translated in my head as "Are these ears?" She isn't Japanese, by the way, and no, those weren't her ears.

I think some things are just easier to express in one language than in another, e.g. my brain just defaults to Japanese when it comes to reactions as Japanese offers so much material to work with

I've been speaking English for two thirds of my life, studied it in university and now work as a translator. I consume nearly all my entertainment media in English. My (formulated) thoughts freely switch between English and German, partly depending on which context I'm thinking about.

I also "listen" to Manga, mostly with voices adapted from English anime dubs. I feel no shame.

I've been speaking English for two thirds of my life, studied it in university and now work as a translator. I consume nearly all my entertainment media in English. My (formulated) thoughts freely switch between English and German, partly depending on which context I'm thinking about.

Replace German with Estonian for me and we're good. Well, almost, probably closer to half my life instead of two thirds. Had a period during school time where I was also often using German for both thinking and talking to friends as we were mostly watching German TV at the time. And, weirdly enough, despite very little knowledge of it, I sometimes also slip into Japanese nowadays when it comes to thinking about related subjects...